So I picked up Final Fantasy XI again, and have actually gotten really into it. I have time to play it and actuall invest in a character. I've had my heart set on Ninja for friggin ever, but I heard their really expensive to level? I'm leveling Beastermaster atm, but really wanna pick up Ninja asap. Could someone give this returning noob some tips on running a Ninja?

Tools are consumables and they can add up. Utsusemi: Ni will probably be a pretty big gil sink for you as it's going for around 1.2mil on my server. And yes, you HAVE to have Utsusemi: Ni. You can do the BCNMs and try to get one to drop for yourself to help eliminate the costs, but at that point the best thing you could do is probably sell it to gear up another job and get to 90 ASAP. Once you hit 90 making money is much easier.

CAN you do it? Yes. Would you be making it harder on yourself? Probably.'

Edit: Also check the stickies at the top of the forum. The one titled "Ninja FAQ v2 - Links to common topics/questions" has a section for Beginning Ninjas. Some of your questions may be answered there.

i actually went the same route you did. i started with bst, and i would get that to max level first. reason being is bst is the money maker, you can farm dynamis and make 700k-1.7mil gil a night. also anything that nin cannot solo bst can solo, it just takes longer. nin becomes really fun in abyssea, outside abyssea nin feels kinda like how it used to, fast hitters, but not exactly hard hitters. its still fun imo, with dnc sub you are pretty much a one man army. nin is a fun job for me because i did alot of exploreing, and with everything nin/dnc has to offer you'll survive almost anything..... well except maybe a train of mandys lol.

since i only had bst leveled when i was trying to level nin, i did all the fame farming for utsusemi: ichi. for utsusemi: ni a blu buddy and i duo'ed royal jelly, after some attempts (maybe 5 lol) it finally dropped. none of the ichi nukes are worth really getting, but all the elemantal ni spells can be had from farming lower/mid level mobs in castle oztroja.

i dont know the help you have or the ls size you belong to, but my ls is a dying social ls with me being an original (quiting and comming back) atm im acting leader. so at times its just me in the ls, somtimes maybe 5-6 ppl 10 at most. this is where my leveling bst to max level came in handy. i dont know how the game is gonna progress now with all the different stuff. i dont know if abyssea will remain THE THING TO DO. however some very useful gear comes from it, i would work on atma 1st. good atma's will = the difference between getting whooped by an EP as if it was an IT or whooping an IT as if it was and EP. after that work on the +1 versions of the gear, once the +1 are done the +2 stage is about as simple as the +1 stage. i had to do alot of shouting, farm pops lock 1 item you need (dont wanna get to greedy) and rinse repeat.

people dont help like they used to, so try and make some good friends or join a good ls. also how the game has changed to almost a solo lower levels->cleave to max game you might encounter some people who has no clue of how to play support roles, however at the end of the day your the one paying for the game so just have fun with the people ingame.

Thanks for your help guys. Got my BST to 50, and LS is gonna help me level him to 95. After that I'ma work on getting my Ninja up. I want to start it now, but I know it will be easiest to get that 95. Also be nice to be able to do LS events. Thanks again.